Problem of a reader....

"Hello

I have a bad back and I have been through the usual useless intervention of Pilates and physio.  You sound tall.   Do you have any tips on how to manage it?"

Well I am glad to be able to confirm that you are asking the right person.  Yes I have suffered for my drafting.  Years of bending over a keyboard with a monitor propped up on reams of A4 have left me barely able to bench press 180lbs.  

If it's any consolation, most of the people I know who suffer from a bad back did that injury in the gym, lifting free weights. (It is alway important to ask on any gym tour whether they have enough free weights, as that gives the impression that you lose more lbs than £ as a result of your membership).  However amongst the legal professions the amount of sitting, coupled with the natural reluctance of any management to spend the money required on a decent chair, leaves us all susceptible to back injury.  

You can at least lie flat on the floor of your office, whilst dictating, when you are in over the weekend.


This position worked for me.  But weekends only.

Ibuprofen three times a day for 5 days ("no more no less") also serves to relieve the symptoms if not the cause.

I would recommend a decent chair, something like this chair. (No I'm not on an affiliates referral commission programme!)  

Also a funky pain relieving gel like this, as anything made from NZ green lipped mussels must be good (as opposed to being made for some White Walker with a glowing red back).

 
"Winter is coming.  It plays havoc with my back"

Of course stress does add to your pain.  The posture of a typical lawyer in the office is that of having your shoulders up by your ears all the time (as they say on Strictly, "wearing your shoulders like earrings") because you cannot relax, can't be yourself, cannot speak or do as you want to, with the clock ticking and the clients waiting and the walls having ears.  All that is coupled with the need to laugh at your bosses' joke(s) and also do all their work for them as they banter with their partners, in a frantic effort to remain in the gang and be accepted.

You should ask for  new chair.  However be aware that many firms will have a  special "back chair" in the office. This will have been ordered online, selected solely on price and look like a blue upholstered Word Rally car driving seat.  It will arrive in the middle of the day and you will have to fit it (as well as the old chair which will never be removed) into your work station.  As a one size fits none" product, you will have to get on your knees and twiddle the levers and buttons yourself to try to get it to fit.  Your colleagues will have a sweepstake on how many times you thump to the lowest height setting, whilst trying to adjust the lumbar supports.

This chair is passed around the organisation from back sufferer to sufferer.  It's fiction is to ensure that the person sitting in it is so uncomfortable that they leave thereby saving the office health insurance plan a serious claim and sparing everyone else having to listen to the ground and moans by the water cooler.  

 
"We do have one very good chair we use for back pain sufferers"

Finally having children and training them to be masseurs is a great plan.  Not only will you get relief from their practice but they will also have a portable and versatile skill which will enable them to work all over the world* and choose their own hours, workplace and lifestyle.  It's win win win win win. And a fee.


*Visa requirements are the responsibility of the applicant